Medvedev pulls off miracle against Zverev, will meet Sinner in Australian Open final

Alexander Zverev still hasn’t shaken off the label of second best on the big stage as he slumped out of the Australian Open by losing to the world number three, Daniil Medvedev, who came back from two sets down in the German’s latest collapse.

The same tennis player who lost his only Grand Slam final at the US Open in 2020, after losing a two-sets-to-nothing lead to Dominic Thiem, has repeated a similar collapse on January 26. So, it will be a third final at the Australian Open for the Russian, who lost to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in 2021 and 2022.

The world number three becomes the fourth player in the Open Era to come back from two sets down in an Australian Open semifinal: Kevin Curren (1984), Arnaud Clement (2001) and Marcos Baghdatis (2006) all accomplished the feat.

Sinner beats Djokovic

Earlier in the day Jannik Sinner took down the defending champion, Novak Djokovic, in the first semifinal. The Italian won three sets to one, dropping the third set in a tie-break, to progress to his first career Grand Slam final.

So now he faces Medvedev, and if the Russian is crowned in the Melbourne Park courts, he will displace Carlos Alcaraz for third place in the ATP ranking. The US Open champion has played three of his six matches on the Melbourne Park courts in five sets, and this is the second time he has turned around such a disadvantage.

The first was in the second round of the tournament with Emil Ruusuvuori. From staring in the face of a second-round exit to reaching the final shows how fine the margins in sport are.

Medvedev still jokes about how little sleep he is getting in the Victorian capital since finishing his second round with Ruusuvuiori at 03:40. That’s why he signed into the TV camera, “I haven’t had many hours of sleep but I am still here.”